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have minimum disturbance the plants are not stressed and the crops get a good kick start.This is a wonderful time of year, everything is emerging after the winter and the birds are certainly feeding and singing. Our land here is surrounded by woods

). For now, the important thing to remember is that frogs, toads, hedgehogs and birds can all help the gardener in the battle against slugs and snails, but if you don't have pests to feed these welcome predators they're not going to take up residence

It's great. The canes on my autumn-fruiting rasperries are whipping around in the incredible wind we're having, but they're absolutely laden with fruit. It's amazing that the local bird population isn't all lined up underneath with their beaks open

The early bird... gets very cold trying to photograph flowers in the frost. The weather this past week has been chilly in my neck of the woods, but frost brings its own beauty to our gardens. Frost is an ephemeral beauty that melts with the rising

and small shrubs, and the birds were sitting on one of the tough child-resistant plants.They were oblivious to the excited line of boys and girls trotting past to class, but continued to explore the branches only a couple of metres from the children

by the tendency of these little birds to strip yellow flowers, such as crocus, but so what? And don't forget that the adults not only eat weed seeds, but they also feed their young with insects and their larvae. All-in-all, sparrows are a delight and a help

flowers and in shades of orange to burnt amber, but to me a sunflower should be brilliant gold.In the past I've often left the old sunflower heads on the stem to ripen and set seed, providing home-grown bird food. However, many new varieties lack pollen

see several places where I imagined gangly arms had been thrust through to pilfer our fruit. Humph. Oh well. I re-pegged the nets, did a bit of disgruntled tidying and left.The next week we were back. A glorious day, birds singing, clouds puffing

is somewhat cruder, but less barbaric than that of my fellow plotters: I too pluck the caterpillars off, but I gather them up in a bucket and tip the whole lot out on a path. This provides a feast for the birds, and the caterpillars at least have a chance

of the nearby roof - grace and elegance is something an owl obviously takes many weeks to learn! A fantastic sight and I feel really honoured that they have decided to breed here. Smaller birds have been here in abundance too - the house sparrow numbers seem